Pope Benedict Resigns From Papal Duties

This morning word came from the Vatican that Pope Benedict XVI has resigned from his duties and that his last day serving as Pope will be February 28th, 2013. This news comes as a shock to the Church as certainly nobody saw this coming. When comparing Benedict to his predecessor Pope John Paul II, who stayed in office until he died, it is odd that Benedict would be stepping down on his own accord, especially without any known serious health risks. This decision actually marks the first time in 600 years that a pope has resigned from his duties.

Of course this is also an odd time to resign given the ongoing sex scandals the church has been facing over the past decade. A time when there is a lot of instability in the Church, you would imagine that the “backbone” of it would remain intact. Is there more to the story that will come in future days? This remains to be seen at this point but there certainly is some oddity to the sudden decision.

One thing the Vatican may hope will disappear with this resignation is the memory of what occurred in May of 2012. The Pope’s butler was arrested for leaking documents that included allegations of financial corruption and claims of infighting over complying with international money-laundering rules. NPR

News of the scandal came as the Pope was apparently attempting to better the Vatican’s decades-long reputation for financial corruption. In 2010, Italian prosecutors took custody of 23 million Euros belonging to the Vatican after they became suspicious of money-laundering. Bloomberg.

It is also worthy to note that the Vatican itself is truly one of the centers of much of the global corruption that exists in our world. Could the instability in the global state be part of this as well? Is the fact that Benedict will likely have a huge influence over the next Pope be a factor at play here? Again, nothing more than assumptions and things to ponder at this point, but this is definitely something to be open to.

I will say tastefully, I don’t think anyone is going to miss his creepy eyes and bone chilling vibe.

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